Rs.37-lakh surplus budget for Pudukottai

PUDUKOTTAI: The budget proposals for 2009-10 for the Pudukottai Municipality envisage a surplus of Rs.36.55 lakh, Chairperson Ramathilagam Udaiyappan has said.

Presenting the proposals at the council meeting held here on Wednesday, Ms. Ramathilagam said that the receipts and expenditure would be about Rs.12.70 crore and Rs.12.33 crore respectively, leaving a surplus provision for the municipality.

A good part of the expenditure would be allotted for the salary bills while special focus would be on provision of basic amenities to all the wards in the town. She said that the receipts and expenditure under the revised budget estimate for 2008-09 stood at Rs. 11.64 crore and Rs. 11.36 crore respectively.

Protest against hike in deposit

Soon after the budget was presented, a few members voiced their protest against the proposed hike in the deposit for the drinking water connection from the present Rs.2,000 to Rs.3,000.

A number of councillors, including Rajendran (AIADMK), Pazhaniappan (CPI), Ibrahim Babu and Mohan (Congress) and Natarajan (Ind) said that the hike would badly hit the people and pleaded for its immediate downward revision. The Chairperson assured that she would look into their demand. Councillor Kannan (DMDK) staged a stir by squatting in the hall, protesting the erratic supply of drinking water to Bose Colony. A few residents from this area, who assembled in front of the Municipal Commissioner’s chamber on the campus, also voiced their protest. They dispersed following an assurance that their grievances would be redressed shortly.

The Chairperson said that the work on the underground drainage facility would be implemented at an outlay of Rs.32.16 crore by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board, utilising a subsidy of Rs.9.65 crore sanctioned under the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Programme; loan of Rs.12.05 crore and people’s contribution of Rs.10.46 crore. The pipes would be buried to a cumulative length of 159 metres all over the town.